Overeem vs Fedor Can Sell PPVs

Alistair Overeem Saturday Night

As I sipped my beer and sat watching Strikeforce MMASaturday I couldn’t help wonder as a ‘hardcore’ MMA fan, if anyone outside of this group knows who Alistair Overeem is. As impressive as he has been fighting overseas for Dream and K-1 I always wonder if the casual fan has the slightest clue who some of these guys are. Compare the Strikeforce marketing to that of the UFC and it’s easy to see that more people know of UFC fighter Todd Duffee with 1 UFC fight than Shinya Aoki who just fought for the Strikeforce lightweight title.

But after watching Overeem absolutely destroy Brett Rogers Saturday, night I’m convinced that Overeem vs Fedor Emelianenko would be a huge draw and could be Pay Per View worthy. Remember that this is the same Brett Rogers who had Fedor badly hurt in their November 2009 clash. In that fight, Rogers finally fell to a huge Fedor right hand, that critics of Fedor (and they are easy to find these days) said was a hail marry shot and he was lucky to leave with a win.

Fedor has a fight coming up in June vs Fabricio Werdum that I would argue is a complete waste of time. Why would Fedor fight Werdum who isn’t ranked in the top 10, has losses to Andrei Arlovski and Junior De Santos in his last 6 fights and should pose no problem for the Russian?

Fedor should walk through Werdum which would set up a huge mega heavyweight fight vs Overeem that could take place in the fall if both parties agree. After watching Overeem’s performance on Saturday night and knowing that he has ‘the look’ (an incredible physique that translates well to the casual fan) this fight would be a big draw for Strikeforce.

After Saturday’s bashing of Rogers, the following took serious notice of Overeem

1. Casual Fan
2. Hardcore Fan3. Fedor Emelianenko

All three should be prepared for an amazing fight between two proven heavyweights and let’s hope it happens sooner than later.